Merchandise display cabinet



June 7, 1955 B. BERG 2,710,240

MERCHANDISE DISPLAY CABINET Filed Sept. 15. 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Emma Lfiarq June 7, 1955 Filed Sept. 15. 1952 B. L. BERG 2,710,240

MERCHANDISE DISPLAY CABINET 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 /Z f// (8 I 9 4 f I ZP IHHHIHIHI l| H 9 as" 5 Mm Emmy LEM;

a? cw n 7, 1955 B. L. BERG 2,710,240

MERCHANDISE DISPLAY CABINET 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Sept. 15. -l952 MERCHANDISE DISPLAY CABINET Bennie L. Berg, Madison, Wis.

Application September 15, 1952, Serial No. 309,667

1 Claim. (Cl. 312-134) This invention relates to display devices for showing merchandise in retail stores and the like, and refers more particularly to a display cabinet in which assorted merchandise may be selectively shown.

It is well known to those engaged in the fields of advertising and merchandising that a static display, such as that provided by the ordinary showcase in a retail store, will not attract as much attention as a display involving animation or motion. It is also known that a prospective customer confronted by a wide variety of small items of merchandise, all displayed simultaneously, will experience a feeling of bewilderment, confusion and indecision which is in conflict with his desire to purchase, with the result that a multifarious display of goods which promotes such a psychology may cause loss of sales. At the same time, however, the customer likes to have the feeling that he has a wide range of choice, and he is more inclined to want to do business with an establishment which does not seem to carry only a limited variety of goods.

The present invention has as its principal object the provision of a display device which will not only resolve these apparently inconsistent phenomena of sales psycholgythe desire for a wide field of choice and the indecision in the face of it-but will also supply the highly desirable element of movement or animation by which attention is strongly attracted to goods on display.

More specifically, it is an object of this invention to provide a display cabinet which is similar in external appearance to a show case but in which a wide variety of goods may be displayed with only a small proportion of the goods disclosed to view at any one time.

Another object of this invention resides in the provision of a display device of the character described, comprising a cabinet having transparent front and top walls and in which a plurality of moving trays are successively ex posed to the customers view as they pass these walls.

Still another object of-this invention resides in the provision of a display device of the character, described having a relatively large number of trays which are movable from positions at which they are visible to a customer to positions at which they are invisible, so that a large and varied stock of goods may be kept in the cabinet but will be displayed only a little at a time, thereby making for a far more effective display of the goods than would be possible with an ordinary showcase of the same dimensions.

A further object of this invention resides in the provision of a cabinet or showcase in which a portion of a stock of goods may be displayed while the remainder thereof is kept out of sight but in which the entire contents of the cabinet isat least as readily accessible to the merchant as if it were kept indrawers.

Another object of this invention resides in theprovision of very simple cooperating means on a pair of endless conveyor chains and on'the ends of the display trays States Patent for readily detachably mounting a number of such trays on the chains, between the stretches thereof, and which mounting means will permit the trays to remain rightside-up at all times as they travel about their orbits with the conveyor chains, while at the same time permitting detachment of any desired tray from the conveyor chains by means of a simple lifting motion.

In connection-with the foregoing object it is another object of this invention to provide tray mounting means of the character described wherein the chain carried ele ments comprise button-like protuberances on the opposing sides of the chains, each of which protuberances may consist of an elongation of a pintle connecting a pair of links of one of the chains and projecting toward the other chain, with an enlargement or head on its projecting end, spaced from the links.

With the above and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, this invention resides in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts substantially as hereinafter described, and more particularly defined by the appended claims, it being understood that such changes in the precise embodiment of the hereindisclosed invention may be made as come within the scope of the claim.

The accompanying drawings illustrate one complete example of the physical embodiment of the invention constructed according to the best mode so far devised for the practical application of the principles thereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a front perspective view of the display cabinet of this invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged view partly in elevation and partly in vertical section, taken substantially on the plane of the line 22 in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary group perspective view illustrating the manner in which the trays are carried by the chain conveyors;

Figure 4 is a sectional view of a drive sprocket by which the chain conveyor is actuated; and

Figure 5 is a sectional view illustrating the mounting of one of the freely rotatable sprockets over which the chain conveyor is trained.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals designate like parts throughout the several views, the numeral 5 designates generally a display cabinet, similar in external appearance to a showcase, in which the mechanism which characterizes the invention is housed. This cabinet has two parallel rectangular side walls 6, as well as front, top and rear walls, designated 7, 8 and 9, respectively. The upper portion of the front wall is transparent, comprising a sheet of glass 10 or the like, and the front portion 11 of the top wall is similarly windowed to render the contents of the cabinet visible to a person standing in front of it.

The rear portion 12 of the top wall is separate from the glass portion 11 thereof, and is secured to the rear wall by means of a hinge 13 to thus provide a sort of cover which may be readily swung open to permit access to the contents of the cabinet. The rear Wall, or at least a substantial portion thereof, may be similarly hinged to swing open to permit ready access to the interior of the cabinet for stocking or servicing the device.

In the interior of the cabinet and visible through the top and front windows, are a plurality of elongated trays 14 which are intended to hold the items to be displayed. These trays may be of any desired shape and size, but should extend substantially across the entire width of the cabinet. Preferably they are made of plastic, and their exact shape will be described hereinafter.

The trays are movably carried by a pair of endless conveyor chains 15, one at each. side of the cabinet, on which the trays are mounted horizontally at uniform closely spaced intervals to substantially span the .space between the chains.

Each of the chains which carries the trays is in turn trained around a group of sprockets S. These sprockets are disposed in coaxial pairs, one sprocket of each pair being mounted on each side wall of the cabinet, so that the group of sprockets at one side of the cabinet is arranged as a mirror image of the group of sprockets at the other side. One sprocket 17 of each group is mounted adjacent to the lower edge of the window in the front cabinet wall and another 18 near the junction of the front and top walls. The pairs of sprockets 17 and 18 cooperate with one another to define an upright stretch 20 of each conveyor, situated immediately behind the window in the front Wall. Strictly speaking, the sprockets 18 are located a greater distance rearwardly of the front Wall than the sprockets 17 and the front stretch of the conveyor just described will therefore have a slight rearward and upward slant whereby no two trays carried by this stretch will be in vertical alignment and all of them will be more readily visible to a person standing in front of the cabinet. A sprocket 21 in each group, mounted adjacent to the upper rear corner of the cabinet, cooperates with the sprockets 18 to define a horizontal stretch 22 of each conveyor whereby the trays are carried horizontally beneath the window 11 in the top wall of the cabinet, parallel thereto. The trays carried by the two stretches 20 and 22 of each conveyor are the only ones exposed to the customers view, the remainder of the trays being effectively concealed from view by the trays along said two stretches, it being understood that the spaces between adjacent trays are too small to permit a view of any substantial portion of the interior of the cabinet.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings there are forty-four trays carried by the conveyors, of which only about fifteen are visible at any one time.

Another stretch 23 of each chain conveyor extends downwardly from the sprockets 21, parallel to and in front of the rear cabinet wall, to sprockets 24 directly below the sprockets 21 and substantially in horizontal alignment with the sprockets 17, and it will be seen that the trays being carried around the sprockets 21 will be readily accessible through the door or cover 12 in the top wall, while all of the trays in the rear vertical stretch 23 will be accessible through a door or doors in the rear wall.

In order to increase the length of each of the conveyor chains and thereby increase the number of trays that can be carried by them, the chains are trained over pairs of sprockets 29 and 36 located at a level substantially midway between the upper and lower sprockets and between the front and rear stretches 2i? and 23 of the conveyor.

The two intermediate sprockets 29 at opposite sides of the cabinet and adjacent to the front stretch of the conveyor comprise the driving sockets by which the conveyor is moved along its orbit; and these sprockets are connected to rotate in unison by means of a shaft 3.2 secured in their hubs. Coaxially secured to one of the sprockets 29 is a gear 34 by means of which the driving sprockets are ro tated, and this gear is in turn driven, through a driving gear 35, from any suitable means such as a manually operated crank (not shown) or an electric motor 36 mounted on a bracket 37 secured to one side of the cabinet. The motor may of course be wired to a suitable source of current (not shown) and may be controlled by any appropriate switch means (not shown) so as to drive the conveyor along its orbit either continuously or at intervals as desired, and in either direction. It will be understood that the motor is drivingly connected with the gear 35 through a suitable gear reduction (not shown) so that the motor drives the conveyor at a relatively low speed.

The several sprockets other than the drive sprockets 29 are mounted to the sides of the cabinet in the manner shown in Figure 5 by means of a bushing 37 recessed into the inner face of the cabinet side Wall and secured thereto and having a threaded hole therein in which a suitable screw 38 is received. The screw has an enlarged unthreaded shank portion 39 just below its head which provides a bearing for the sprocket.

The drive sprockets are mounted in similar bushings 37 (see Figure 4) but the end portions 41 of the shaft 32 connecting the drive sprockets are turned down and rotatably journalled in the bushings. The reduced end portions 41 of the shaft thus provide outwardly facing shoulders which cooperate with the inner faces of the bushings to limit axial play of the shaft; and the drive sprockets are secured to the rod adjacent to these reduced end portions by means of set screws 43.

The elongated trays 14 carried by the conveyor chains, and in which the merchandise to be displayed is arranged, are preferably made of plastic and have a uniform substantially U-shaped cross section throughout their length. The opposite vertical end Walls 45 of each tray have portions projecting a distance above the side walls thereof, as at 46, and bosses 47 on the exteriors of these projections are formed to provide U-shaped downwardly opening pockets 48 in which are received button-like protuberances 49 on the conveyor chains to mount the trays on the chains. Each boss has a downwardly opening slot 59 in its outer face, and an outwardly extending flange 51 surrounds this slot to provide a bearing surface which rides on the spindle of the button-like protuberance carrying the tray, as will appear presently.

The button-like protuberances which mount the several trays comprise spindles 52 formed as inward extensions of certain of the pintles which connect the links 54 of the conveyor chains. Each of these spindles has an enlarged button or head 55 on its outer end, which head is received in the pocket on the tray to preclude endwise displacement of the tray off of the spindle, while the inwardly extending spindle 52 is straddled by the U-shaped flange 51 which rockably rides thereon.

It will be seen that the pockets 48 on each tray are located a substantial distance above the center of gravity of the tray and consequently as the tray is carried by the two spindles which support it the trays own weight will at all times keep it suspended right-side-up. Hence even relatively small and light items of merchandise, such as finishing lures and flies, can be displayed in the cabinet of this invention without danger of their being spilled or upset. Attention is directed to the fact that the manner of mounting the trays just described enables each tray to be removed from the cabinet by simply lifting it off of the two spindles which support it, and this feature of course greatly facilitates stocking the cabinet with merchandise to be displayed.

The attractive appearance of the cabinet is further enhanced by a panel 56 which flatwise overlies the inner surface of each side wall in front of and above the chains, and cooperates with the trays to substantially conceal the chains and sprockets from view. The thickness of these panels is of course substantially equal to the width of the chains, and the inner edge of each panel substantially conforms in contour to the upper and front portions of the chain orbits.

From the foregoing description taken together with the accompanying drawings it will be readily apparent that this invention provides a display cabinet in which a large and varied assortment of merchandise can be very neatly and effectively displayed in such a manner that only a relatively small proportion of the goods is visible at any one instant, while at the same time any part of the material may be readily brought into view (if the conveyor is not operating continuously) or removed from the cabinet. It will also be seen that the cabinet of this invention will blend nicely with ordinary show cases used in retail stores and the like, that it may be readily stocked with the merchandise to be displayed and that the merchandise placed therein is at least as readily accessible to the merchant as if it were kept in drawers.

What I claim as my invention is:

In a display case of the character described: a cabinet of show case size having substantially parallel side walls and having transparent portions in its front and top walls; a plurality of pairs of sprockets in the cabinet, one sprocket of each pair being mounted adjacent to each side wall and the two sprockets of each pair being coaxial with one another; a pair of identical endless conveyor chains, each trained over the sprockets adjacent to one of the side walls; said sprockets being so disposed that each of said conveyor chains has a horizontal stretch, below the top Wall of the cabinet, and a rearwardly upwardly inclined upright stretch, behind the front wall; a plurality of spindles projecting inwardly from each of said chains at spaced intervals along the chain, each of said spindles having an enlarged head at its end remote from the chain; a plurality of elongated trough-like receptacles, each having end walls with portions projecting above the adjacent side walls of the receptacle, a boss on each of said end walls defining a downwardly opening pocket on the outer face of the upwardly projecting portion on each end wall, and a downwardly opening slot in said boss, each of said receptacles being readily detachably mounted between the chains by having a spindle on each of the chains received in the slot in the boss on the receptacle, with the enlarged head on the spindle in the pocket and precluding displacement of the receptacle off of the spindle, the receptacle being freely swingable (with respect to the chains) about an axis parallel to the length of the receptacle spaced above the center of gravity of the receptacle, so that the receptacle will at all times hang from the chains right-sideup as it travels around the orbit defined by the chains; means for rotatingly driving one of the pairs of sprockets to cause the chains to travel around their orbits in unison, carrying the receptacles with them; and a panel flatwise overlying the inner surface of each side wall above and in front of the chains and substantially equal in thickness to the chains, to conceal the chains from view.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 764,280 Duerr et al July 5, 1904 1,189,137 Klingelhofer June 27, 1916 1,227,704 Ulrich May 29, 1917 1,266,899 Alexander May 21, 1918 1,938,985 Starr Dec. 12, 1933 FOREIGN PATENTS 847,856 France Oct. 18, 1939 

